Special court for medical errors suggested

Arab News – A forum on medical errors, organized by the lawyers’ committee at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recently urged the health authorities to establish a special court to deal with medical error cases in the Kingdom.
The forum cited the rise in the number of Shariah committees for medical errors, which handle such cases, to 29 across Saudi Arabia as an indicator to the rise in medical errors by almost 30 percent.
The suggestion was made by Ahmad Al-Muhaimeed, legal consultant, saying that his suggestion was based on the fact that many of those involved in handling medical error cases have left the field. He said ambiguity of policies related to dealing with these errors, absence of initiatives to improve the existing procedures and overlapping of jurisdictions have resulted in delaying claims in medical error cases.
Al-Muhameed said the largest rate of medical errors relates to maternity and labor.
Another participant, Hamad Al-Razeen, former chief of the Shariah committee for medical errors, said that it was noticed that most of the medical error cases were detected at small medical centers which are mostly accused of violations of rules.
Sulaiman Al Muhaimeed, medical consultant and head of paediatrics at Prince Sultan Medical City, Riyadh, attributed medical errors to a number of factors such as incompetent health practitioners, poor training, absence of information and insufficient resources.
To deal with these errors, he stressed the need to recruit competent personnel, improve work conditions and provide proper and continuous training.